Recycling food waste with wormeries
A wormery is a self contained composting system that retains most nutrients for reuse. The worm's digestive system gives a stable crumb structure to the worm compost, which is a nutrient/rich humus material, made up of partially decomposed organic waste, bedding material (such as such as well rotted compost manure or leaf mould) and worm castings (manure). It shouldn't smell if it is run properly.
If you would like to make your own, here's a suggestion using old car tyres.
Ingredients:
Old carpet or sack
Old phone books
Corrugated iron –60 cm x 60cm
3-4 car tyres
Lid (use a piece of wood with a rock on it)
35 Saturday newspapers
Step 1: First get your worms (worm farming in the yellow pages).
Step 2: Soak the newspapers in water and stuff the sides of the tyres.
Step 3: Raise the corrugated iron base on old phone books.
Step 4: Cut out carpet to the size of the base.
Step 5: Add bedding material and worms to the bottom tyre.
Step 6: Continue stacking stuffed tyres and bedding material.
Step 7: Feed regularly with kitchen scraps and keep the mixture moist to touch.
What do worms eat?
Worms are voracious eaters. They don’t have teeth, so they like their food scraps small:
- waste from vegetable juicers
- soaked and ripped pizza boxes
- paper
- tissues
- dirt
- leaves
- hair
- cardboard fast food packaging
- egg shells
- potato peelings
- apple cores
- pea pods
How much do worms eat?
The worms in a small wormery should eat all the fruit and vegetable waste produced by a household of four. Wormeries are ideal for people living in flats or houses with small backyards.
What to do with worm poo?
Castings can go straight onto the garden or pot plants. You can also make liquid fertiliser by mixing castings with water until it looks like weak tea.